DONALD TRUMP Fires The Acting Attorney General Of The United States Sally Yates said she’d refuse to defend Trump’s executive order on immigration. CRISIS: TRUMP SACKS ACTING A.G. EARLIER: REFUSED TO DEFEND MUSLIM BAN : Bizarre White House Press Release Accuses Yates Of ‘Betrayal’... Report: Ban ‘Largely Crafted’ By Bannon... Key Trump Appointees Left In Dark... Ryan And McConnell Too... BUT: Congressional STAFFERS Helped ‘Secretly’... UN: Tens Of Thousands At Risk... PANIC: Many Needing Urgent Care Could Be Denied... ‘There Are People Literally Crying In The Office’ At State And Homeland Security...

01/30/2017 09:30 pm ET

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday night, hours after she said the Justice Department would not defend Trump’s executive order on immigration.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that Yates had been relieved of her duties. Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was named as acting attorney general.

Trump & Sally Yates

Spicer’s statement said Yates had “betrayed the Department of Justice” by refusing to defend Trump’s order. The statement added that Yates, a career prosecutor who Trump named as acting attorney general, is “weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.” Boente will serve until Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is confirmed as attorney general. 

The stunning move was reminiscent of President Richard Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre” in 1973, when he fired his attorney general and deputy attorney general, when they refused to dismiss Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor in the Watergate case.

Earlier Monday, Yates wrote a letter stating she could not enforce Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim nations and instructing Justice Department lawyers not to defend the order.

“At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful,” she wrote.

Trump responded in a tweet, calling Yates “an Obama A.G.,” even though she agreed to serve as acting attorney general under Trump, and criticized Democrats for “delaying” the confirmation of Sessions. more